The duo from the Boston Athletic Association spent countless hours running around the state with the ultimate goal of qualifying at this year's Olympic trials, in the marathon.

But before they can tackle their ultimate goal, they had some business to tend to in Fitchburg.

Harvey and Ashe broke free early, and then down the stretch traded leads, until Harvey pulled away, winning his first Turkey Trot in two tries Sunday afternoon in the 35th installment of the Slattery's Turkey Trot race on Culley Street.

There was a familiar face on the podium in the women's race, as Fitchburg native Christine Laakso-Shaw finished second, behind former Olympian Kim Smith.

Harvey, a Boston resident, won the trot on a seasonable fall day, with a time of 23:23.7. He attempted to pull away at the final hill of the day on Pearl Street, just before the finish line, but then his teammate Ashe took the lead.

Harvey regained the edge and the duo ran in tandem with Harvey holding a two-step lead toward the finish line.

"I tried to make one move up the hill, and my teammate Eric caught me back and passed me," Harvey said. "At the very end I caught him back again. It was back and forth, and it was probably 50 meters to go when I took the lead again. Having him there absolutely pushed me, we ran next to each other the entire race."

Harvey, 28, finished third the last time he raced Fitchburg, and ran in college for Carnegie Mellon University.

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He just finished up his PhD from Boston University, and works in the bio-medical industry.

"I knew it was going to be a competitive field," Harvey said. "Eric and I trade who wins every other race, so beating him I knew would be tough. The best part about running is not thinking about time, but how to beat the person you're running with."

Ashe, a resident of Brighton, was right in the race until the very end, finishing less than two seconds behind Harvey with a 23:25.3.

"Harvey and I were side by side for most of it, and pushing the pace," Ashe said. "It was good weather and gave it our best."

Ashe works at Tracksmith, a running apparel startup company, and finished in the 24-minute range last year, improving upon his previous best by a minute.

Although the two top runners battled it out for supremacy, the third best runner, Robert Allen, was just inches behind. Allen, a resident of Providence, R.I., was a standout at UMass Lowell, finishing up his career a couple of weeks ago, in a tenure that saw him as a record holder in the mile (4:00).

His goal was to use the race as a platform to launch him into a professional career in the sport, and is looking for sponsorship, and his third-place performance (23:27.3) might help do that, as he finished just four seconds behind the leader.

"The course was awesome, but the last hill on the course was challenging," Allen said. "I tried to stay up with the leaders, for the whole time."

Smith, the women's winner, is about as highly-touted as they come. During her collegiate days at Providence College, Smith won the NCAA Division 1 individual crown at the cross country national championships in 2004, and also tallied three individual national titles in track and field.

She was a three-time Olympian for New Zealand (3K, 10K), with her top finish being 15th, and finished fifth in the Chicago Marathon in 2011.

The race marked a return to running for the 38-year-old after sitting out recently to have her first child, and she claimed the victory with a 27:10.9 time, about 48 seconds ahead of Laakso-Shaw. She was ninth overall for the entire field.

"It was not a good time for me, this is just the first race back," Smith said. "I don't really know how to push myself quite yet. It was kind of a low-key comeback race, and I'm just getting back into the swing of things."

Laakso-Shaw is no stranger to the Turkey Trot, having raced it throughout her youth. She made a return last year, after a brief absence, and for the second straight year found herself on the podium, capturing 12th overall and 2nd for women (27:58.4).

"I went out a lot slower than the large group of women, and Smith was gone from the start," Laakso-Shaw said. "I ran my own race, but saw my husband ahead most of the time. It was my fastest five-mile race ever today, and it's a special race and a fun race to come back to."

This fall as part of its eighth class, the Fitchburg High School Hall of Fame inducted Laakso-Shaw, after a high school career that saw two state championships and one New England championship.

In 2014 she won the Myrtle Beach marathon, and is heading with her husband Phil Shaw (11th, 27:52.9) to race in the Sacramento Marathon in two weeks.

Karen Roa took third place honors in the women's race, finishing 16th (28:31.1).

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